A Fridley mother and her live-in boyfriend are in jail after police say they shaved the woman’s 12-year-old daughter’s head and forced her to run up and down a city street in a diaper.

Fridley police arrived on the 1600 block of 68th Avenue about 7:20 p.m. Monday, May 7, to find a crowd of more than 50 people watching the girl as she moved up and down the block in nothing but a diaper and a tank top, said Fridley Police Lt. Mike Monsrud. Her hair had also been completely shaved off, Monsrud added, saying officers believe she had been outside for about half an hour before a neighbor alerted police.

“When the officer found her, she was crying and hysterical,” Monsrud said.

Police arrested 38-year-old Stephanie Ann Broten and 34-year-old Darnell Alan Landrum on suspicion of gross-misdemeanor malicious punishment of a child. The two reportedly told police they were punishing the girl for not bringing home good grades from school and for failing to do her homework.

“They told her if she didn’t, they would shave her head and put her on ‘diaper duty,’ which I guess meant running up and down the street and cleaning up trash as a form of public humiliation,” Monsrud said. He added that Broten and Landrum questioned the police’s decision to intervene.

“Through the whole contact, and even on the way to jail, both were laughing and thinking it was ridiculous police would get involved in what they said was their parental decision,” he said.

The couple is being held at the Anoka County Jail. Neither had been formally charged as of Tuesday afternoon. Family members could not be reached for comment Tuesday, May 8.

The 12-year-old girl and three younger children found at the woman’s apartment on 68th Avenue in Fridley were placed in foster care, Mons-rud said. He added that police have referred other reports of “physical abuse” from the residence to child protective services in the past.

Landrum was convicted of disorderly conduct in 1999. Broten does not appear to have a criminal record in Minnesota.

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